By Emeka Alex Duru
From Tuesday, November 6, to Thursday, November, 8, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, was in the country, in continuation of his three-day business and cultural tour of Nigeria and also to mark the 75th Anniversary of the British Council in Nigeria. The visit took him to Abuja, where he was received by the President, Muhammadu Buhari.
On Wednesday, he was in Lagos, where the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Idiat Adebule, officials of the United Kingdom Consulate and security chiefs, were on hand to accord him befitting reception. While in the State, he looked into the Navy Dockyard where he took a look at some of the Ships in the nation’s fleet.
The Prince had earlier met with traditional rulers including the Ooni of Ife, Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Kano, Obi of Onitsha, Etsu Nupe, Oba of Benin and Shehu of Borno. Also included in the schedule, were talks with some youths, the business community, the Armed Forces, and people from the arts and fashion sectors.
Carefully couched as cultural tour and in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the British Council in Nigeria, not much political engagements were included in the programme. Thus, aside the demand by the Benin Monarch, Oba Ewuare 11 on the Crown Prince for the return of Benin artifacts stolen from the Kingdom by the invading British troops in the infamous Benin Massacre of 1897, which was largely not responded to, politics did not feature in the tour. Of course, though the Prince may have succeeded in parrying the demand by the Bini Oba, the 1897 episode and the impacts, count among the sore points of the British imperialism on Nigeria.
The 1897 exercise was a punitive expedition by a United Kingdom force of 1,200 under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush, by Bini fighters of a previous British-led party under Acting Consul General James Philips.
Accounts by historians indicate that the ambush was so thorough that only two British soldiers survived the Bini fireworks. In obvious reprisal, Rawson’s troops captured, burned, and looted Benin City, bringing to an end the flourishing West African Kingdom of Benin. The then King of Benin, Oba Ovonramwen, was captured by the enraged British, deposed and exiled to Calabar. He died in 1914.
The raid also saw much of the Kingdom’s art, including the famous Benin Bronzes, stolen and relocated to Britain. A reminder of such sordid episodes, is what British authorities at all levels, endeavour to ignore or suppress. When therefore the Prince did not make any commitment to the request by the Oba, he was simply, playing to the rule. And the sleeping dog, in that respect, continues to lie.
But perhaps, more than that, the visit meant a lot to the British than may have been estimated. In a fluidic global system that is lining up trade and international relations along America and the European countries on one hand, while China and Japan lead the East from another angle, Britain is increasingly finding itself in a lurch. With the uncertain impacts of its exit from the European Union on its economy, the erstwhile colonial master, may have started making subtle overtures to its former colonies in the event of unexpected isolation from its other European neighbours.
Thus, for the Crown Prince, the possible successor to the British Monarchy, the visit meant much in strengthening the Commonwealth ties that Britain has had with its former colonies. The British Monarch, is by convention, the head of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is not an international organisation in the strict sense of the word. It has no charter or any legal instrument guiding its establishment. It simply evolved. Thus, for such essentially loose association of entities that does not have any formal rules guiding the entry and exit of member states, the realism of the contemporary world which stresses self-interest of states dictates that occasional diplomatic shuttles as one by Prince Charles, are carried out in maintaining its relevance among members. This, perhaps, informed extending the visit to Ghana, another member of the Commonwealth that commands enormous influence in the organisation and other inter-governmental platforms.
So, while the visit by the Prince of Wales, may seem coincidental with the 75thanniversary of the British Council in the country, it goes farther in influence and impact for Britain. This is also as Nigeria, as it currently exists, is seen as a product of British political engineering in the so-called amalgamation of the hitherto Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, by Lord Frederick Lugard, a colonial officer.
The measure was actually driven by the desire of the British colonialists to attain administrative convenience and exploit the envisaged economic gains of a larger entity. In going about the enterprise, Britain had derived strength from the Berlin Conference of 1885, which incidentally laid the ground work for the scramble for and partition of Africa. At the conference, what essentially occupied the minds of the invading colonialists were the inherent economic gains in the mission to Africa.
It was in that respect that the hidden agenda behind the 1914 amalgamation would remain instructive. Before then, the various entities that were packed into the hastily contrived project had flourished in their peculiar characters and characteristics.
In the North for instance, the influence of the fabled Sokoto Caliphate which had extended up to Gwandu and such distant out posts as Kano, Kebbi, Ilorin and beyond, had held sway, carrying with it the twin principles of Islamic civilization and Arabic culture.
Competing in some degrees with the Sokoto Caliphate, from the Eastern flank, were the Kanuris who held aloft the rich cultures of the old Kanem Borno Empire.
In what constitute the present geographical Middle Belt, were the Kwararafa, Igala, Nupe, Wukari and other pockets of Chiefdoms and Kingdoms that existed on clearly defined order.
In the West, the emerging city states had cohabited with each other essentially under the influence of Oyo Empire, in its monarchical system of administration. The Benin Kingdom at the neighbourhood, complemented the exercise of the prevailing independence among the entities at the time.
The Igbo of the South East, had of course, recorded great feats in their unique Village Republic arrangements. Not given to centralised monarchy, the constituting units, had, riding on the principles of Consultation, Compromise and Consensus at various tiers of leadership, successfully carried on with their individual village affairs.
In similar vein, their so-called stateless riverine neighbours that did not have the culture of institutionalized monarchy, had managed their affairs in manners that guaranteed their particular needs.
All these peculiarities were however abridged following the 1914 amalgamation exercise. Even the amalgamation which in Lugard’s expression, was principally to “cause the minimum of administrative disturbance”, turned out to be lacking in thoroughness, apparently deliberately. For instance, the colonialists in keeping with their carefully concealed mercantilist intentions, kept the North intact and in the process, keeping the two administrations separate.
Consequently, the exercise which should have brought the entire people closer and provide a solid platform for a more coherent emerging nation, was rather manipulated by the British authorities to advance their economic interests.
While the colonial masters made their kill in terms of exploiting the country’s natural resources, the people remained as disunited as ever. Britain made conscious efforts to keep the two entities separate from one another in terms of policies and practices.
Thus, with entrenched loyalty to their ethnic enclaves rather than the emerging nation, Nigerians from the two major divides, looked at one another with suspicion.
This was bound to affect the emerging leadership in the run-up to political independence in 1960. The trend continues, 58 years after independence, stirring calls in some quarters for restructuring the country. For Britain, however, it is a larger Nigeria that matters.